An Olympic Event That's Even Harder Than It Looks

The upside and downside of Olympic weightlifting

By

Jen Murphy

March 17, 2014 6:04 p.m. ET

In Olympic weightlifting events, an athlete attempts to lift the heaviest weighted barbell within a specified weight class. The two lifts are called a snatch and the clean and jerk, which work nearly the entire body, says Jeff Potteiger, a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and a professor in the Department of Movement Science at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The upside, Dr. Potteiger says, is that "you are building strength and explosive power," which is why you see...